Fiber & Textile Art
In this blog post, I am going to discuss what fiber art is and give a basic idea of what it's like to use this medium for artwork. This post is a summarized version that is intended to inspire further research into the art. It can also be a beginning source to get started on learning the skills of fiber arts.
What are the classification of arts?
Fine art is a form of visual art that is made for aesthetics or creative expression. It can’t be made for commercial or practical use. The fine arts include: painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, poetry, music, literature, and dance. It is considered not a trade and the artwork is created to be enjoyed for its artistic merits. It is appreciated for its own sake rather than practical function.
Fine art is often not created to be sold commercially. It is designed to be exhibited or displayed in a private collection, gallery, or museum for people's admiration and enjoyment. The applied arts must be commercially viable to sell in the mass rather than as an original or one-of-a-kind work.
Visual art includes all the categories of fine art with the addition of:
New media such as digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, video games, computer robotics, 3D printing, and art as biotechnology
Photography
Filmmaking/Cinema
Environmental/ecological art
Contemporary forms of expression such as collage, conceptual, or installation art
Plastic arts which involve physical manipulation of three-dimensional works like clay, plaster, stone, metals, wood, and paper (origami)
Fine art is different from decorative art or applied art, which has to serve some practical function and created for valuable end product such as design or decoration. Applied art is created with a specific practical purpose in mind. The various mediums are design, decoration, and even advertising. Applied art is often used for commercial or utilitarian purposes such as product design or architecture. The types of applied arts are: architecture, computer art, photography, industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, and interior design. Applied arts can be referred to as both crafts or commercial arts.
Decorative arts is functional but ornamental. Types of decorative arts are: jewelry, ceramics, mosaic art, embroidery, and other embellished items by ornaments. It also includes works in glass, clay, wood, metal, textile fabric, furniture, furnishings, stained glass, and tapestry art. Interior designers often use this art form for home, commercial and retail outlets, and office décor.
Performance arts consists of an art form that refers to public performance events that occur mainly in the theater. Performance arts include:
Traditional performance art such as theatre, opera, music, and ballet
Contemporary performance art such as mime, magic, puppetry, acrobatics, contemporary dance, variety show, burlesque, kabuki, improv, acting, action painting, contemporary music, singing, etc.
What is Fiber Art?
Fiber art is a fine art with materials consisting of natural or synthetic fiber or other components such as fabric and or yarn. Fiber or fibre is a natural or artificial substance that is longer than it is wide. Fibers are used to make other materials. There are different types of fibers including:
Natural fibers from plants, animals, minerals, and biological fibers
Artificial fibers
Synthetic fibers
What is Textile Art?
Modern fiber art came from textile art. Textile art have been practiced for a very long time. Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.
The word textile means "to weave", "to braid" or "to construct". The simplest textile art is felting, in which animal fibers are matted together using heat and moisture. Most textile arts begin with twisting or spinning and plying fibers to make yarn (called thread when it is very fine and rope when it is very heavy). The yarn is then knotted, looped, braided, or woven to make flexible fabric or cloth, and cloth can be used to make clothing and soft furnishings. All of these items are collectively referred to as textiles.
The textile arts also include those techniques which are used to embellish or decorate textiles such as:
dyeing to add color and pattern
printing to add pattern and design
embroidery and other types of needlework
lace-making
Objects such as carpets, kilims, hooked rugs, and coverlets are part of textile arts. The construction methods of textile arts are:
tuffing or punch needlework
macrame
braiding or plaiting
Relationship to Fashion & Other Arts
Textile does influence fashion and culture. Every textile produced can be turned into clothing that can be made for ceremonial, religious rituals, and to indicate social status. It is also used to identify national costumes and create personal expression. Textile plays an important role in constructing fashion designs for the runway and for merchandise. All of this is related to the world of fashion.
Textile clothing is constructed for practical protection against environmental conditions. It has gone through an evolution in human history as discussed in previous posts on basic fashion history. Clothing is molded and shaped to fit the aesthetics of the time period with new silhouettes and shapes modernizing the way we dress. It also creates the national costume of every country.
Textile can be used for performance and visual arts as well. Costumes are used to convey the visuals of a performance art such as cinema costume, dance costume, theater costume, musician costumes and other various performance costumes.
For decorative and interior designing, textile art can produce beautiful arrays of carpets, rugs, macrame, wall art, and other decorative arts that is used to improve the aesthetics. Fashion photoshoots for magazines and articles also incorporate textile designs. The versatility of fiber and textile art display it’s potential and significant role in the world of arts, crafts, and aesthetics.
